Why My Aunt Beatrice Thinks Bill Gates Is Hiding the Cure for Diabetes

It always starts the same way.

A ding from the family Facebook group chat, a dramatic caption, and a suspiciously low-resolution video titled:

“EXPOSED: Natural Cure for Diabetes Hidden by Big Pharma | Watch Before It’s Deleted!”

And right under it, a comment from my Aunt Beatrice:

“They’ve known the cure since the ‘70s. Do your research.”

Now, I love my aunt. She’s a powerhouse. A high school biology teacher who graduated with her Bachelor’s in Education from a state university back in the mid-1980s—back when Reagan was president and cordless phones were the future. She's taught biology longer than I’ve been alive. The periodic table is basically her love language.

But now?

Aunt Beatrice is absolutely convinced that Bill Gates is hiding the cure for diabetes.

Yes, that Bill Gates. Mr. Microsoft. The guy who brought the world Clippy, Excel, and unsolicited software updates. And in Aunt Beatrice's eyes? He's also the guy standing between her and a diabetes-free life.

Who Is Aunt Beatrice?

Beatrice is the kind of woman who still critiques TV commercials out loud. She reads medicine labels like she’s grading a high school essay. She corrects her CVS pharmacist for mispronouncing “hydrochlorothiazide.”

She’s sharp. She’s well-read. She’s been explaining insulin and the pancreas to American teenagers for almost 40 years.

But she’s also developing high blood sugar symptoms, takes daily meds for her hypertension, and is fully convinced that modern medicine is more about money than healing.

“I can feel my sugar rising,” she says. “It’s in my ankles. That’s how it started for your Uncle Vernon.”

Instead of trusting her physician, she now places her faith in a rotating cast of YouTube herbalists, internet doctors with suspiciously good lighting, and TikTok accounts featuring shirtless men holding aloe vera while whispering about Big Pharma.

Where the Conspiracy Starts: Laetrile and the Cancer Cure That “Vanished”

It all came to a head one Thanksgiving when Beatrice, while slicing sweet potatoes, leaned in and whispered:

“You know they banned a cancer cure in the ’70s, right?”

I blinked. “What?”

“It’s called Laetrile. Natural. Came from apricot seeds. Worked better than chemo. But the FDA banned it. Why? Because treating cancer is a multi-billion dollar industry. They needed people sick to stay rich. Connect the dots.”

Let me be clear: Laetrile is a real substance. It was promoted as a cancer treatment back in the 1970s, derived from amygdalin found in apricot pits. But clinical trials found it not only ineffective—it could actually release cyanide in the body. The FDA banned it in the U.S. after public outcry and multiple poisonings.

But to people like Aunt Beatrice, that’s just a cover story. They believe it was too effective, and that’s why it was shut down.

So her logic goes:

“If they could hide the cure for cancer, why not diabetes?”

And just like that, she starts side-eyeing her metformin tablets and asking whether Bill Gates has a secret apricot farm somewhere in the Pacific Northwest.

The University of Facebook and TikTok Med School

This is where it all brews.

Platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and now TikTok serve as Aunt Beatrice’s favorite classrooms. She watches hour-long “documentaries” from anonymous channels with names like “Healing Truths 247” or “The Real Medicine Channel.” They all have similar themes:

• “Doctors admit they’ve been lying!”

• “Cures banned by the FDA!”

• “Pharmaceutical industry EXPOSED!”

The villains are always the same: Big Pharma, the FDA, and, of course, Bill Gates.

Because he’s rich, he’s involved in global health, and most of all—he just looks like a supervillain to people who already don’t trust the system.

“Why Is a Computer Guy So Obsessed with Medicine?”

That’s the question Aunt Beatrice asked me last month.

“If Bill Gates was so smart, why didn’t he fix Windows Vista before trying to ‘help’ Africa?” she asked, arms crossed, neck tilted. “Why is he funding vaccines and talking about world population like it’s a PowerPoint presentation?”

To her, it’s suspicious. Tech billionaires investing in health sounds less like philanthropy and more like a hostile takeover. Especially when insulin prices in the U.S. have skyrocketed, even as the actual product hasn’t changed much in decades.

She doesn’t trust anyone in a lab coat unless they also drink hibiscus tea and say things like “food is medicine.”

And Honestly? She’s Not Totally Wrong

Hold on—before you laugh off Aunt Beatrice and her Facebook-fueled theories, let’s pause.

The system is messed up:

• Insulin in America is absurdly overpriced

• The pharmaceutical industry profits more from treatment than prevention

• Low-income and minority communities get the short end of the stick

It’s not that there’s a man in a secret lair hiding a one-shot diabetes cure—it’s that the incentives in the healthcare industry make it easier to sell maintenance than seek cures.

So when Aunt Beatrice says, “They don’t want to cure you; they want to treat you forever,” she might be oversimplifying—but she’s not completely wrong.

The Rise of Natural Remedies and Mistrust of Doctors

Here’s where it gets tricky.

Aunt Beatrice grew up in an era where Black communities relied heavily on home remedies. Before urgent care clinics and health insurance apps, people trusted ginger root, fasting, prayer, and Aunt Sheila’s mysterious purple tonic.

When she sees CVS charging $300 for a glucose monitor, and a YouTuber offering a “diabetes cleanse” for $19.99 with free shipping, which one do you think she picks?

Last year she replaced her Lisinopril with a homemade concoction of boiled cinnamon sticks and cayenne pepper. She called it her “natural high blood pressure solution.”

It didn’t work.

When Belief Becomes Dangerous

Here’s the part that’s not funny.

People die because of this stuff. When someone skips their insulin or stops taking life-saving medication because of an internet theory or detox tea, the consequences are deadly.

This isn’t about being stupid. It’s about being scared. It’s about people losing trust in a system that’s failed them over and over again.

• Hospitals that overcharge

• Doctors who rush you in and out in five minutes

• Medications that cost hundreds for no reason

Is it any wonder why people turn to TikTok?

What Do We Do with Aunt Beatrice?

If you have someone like Aunt Beatrice in your life—and you probably do—you already know that facts don’t always work.

So here’s how to help:

• Lead with empathy: Don’t mock them. They mean well

• Find reliable sources that speak their language: Short videos, documentaries, Black health experts they can trust

• Admit when the system sucks: Because it does. But explain that abandoning medicine entirely isn’t the answer

• Frame medicine as a tool, not a scam: Combine their herbal tea with proper meds, not instead of it

Most importantly, remember: this isn’t about logic—it’s about trust.

Beatrice Might Be Wrong, But She’s Not Crazy

Bill Gates probably isn’t hoarding the diabetes cure in his garage freezer. But if the healthcare system continues to prioritize profits over people, more and more folks like Aunt Beatrice will believe that he is.

And maybe we shouldn’t dismiss her fears so quickly.

Because in a country where an insulin pen can cost $600, a walk-in ER bill can bankrupt a family, and a billionaire is in charge of global health policy...

conspiracies start sounding more believable than the truth.

Until something changes, you’ll find Aunt Beatrice sipping hibiscus tea, quoting YouTube naturopaths, and muttering:

“I passed Biology in 1985 when exams were real. Don’t try me.”